Most AEC firms recognize research's potential and understand they can’t rely on assumptions or gut feelings to stay ahead of the curve. Still, many firms struggle to implement effective research programs that inform their strategic decisions. In this episode of “Spill the Ink,” Michelle speaks with Julie Witecki, Senior Consultant at FMI Consulting, about how research can shape market strategies and drive business growth in architecture, engineering and construction firms.
Julie introduces the “Five C’s of Context” framework: a comprehensive approach to research that examines climate, customer, competitor, collaborator, and company dynamics and considerations. She explains how firms can overcome common barriers to research adoption and turn data into practical, actionable strategies that deliver measurable ROI.
This conversation offers a preview of Julie’s upcoming session at the Society of Marketing Professional Services Southwest Regional Conference: “Navigating the Road Ahead: Translating Research into Strategy.”
Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn
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The make-or-break role of research in AEC firm success and
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How to identify and overcome adoption barriers.
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How to utilize the “Five C’s of Context” framework for comprehensive market research.
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Balancing primary and secondary data sources for maximum insight.
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How to avoid common research pitfalls and ensure actionable outcomes.
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How to integrate research into strategic planning processes.
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Resources available through FMI Consulting to support your research efforts.
About our featured guest
With over 20 years in the construction industry, Julie Witecki is a strategy consultant, inspiring FMI’s clients to reshape market and business development practices for increased efficiency and effectiveness. She focuses on turning visionary ideas into actionable plans with measurable objectives and realistic budgets. Based in Denver, Julie has a coast-to-coast view of the construction industry. She is active in the Colorado chapter of SMPS and is a certified professional services marketer. She has also achieved the APMP Bid & Proposal Foundation-level certification and the University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business customer experience certification. Julie holds an MBA from Regis University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Resources mentioned in this episode
Sponsor for this episode
This episode is brought to you by Reputation Ink.
Founded by Michelle Calcote King, Reputation Ink is a public relations and content marketing agency that serves professional services firms of all shapes and sizes across the United States, including corporate law firms and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms.
Reputation Ink understands how sophisticated corporate buyers find and select professional services firms. For more than a decade, they have helped firms grow through thought leadership-fueled strategies, including public relations, content marketing, video marketing, social media, podcasting, marketing strategy services and more.
To learn more, visit www.rep-ink.com or email them at info@rep-ink.com today.
Transcript
Disclaimer: What you’re reading is an AI-transcribed version of our podcast. It may contain mistakes, including spelling and grammar errors.
[00:00:00] Julie Witecki: You're likely doing research without even knowing it. Thinking about how to formalize the collection of that intelligence and giving some sort of measurable return to that investment is a really powerful force. And it's not that hard to do.
[00:00:22] Announcer: Welcome to Spill the Ink, a podcast by Reputation Ink.
[00:00:39] Michelle Calcote King: Hi everyone. I'm Michelle Calcote King, I'm your host, and I'm also the principal and president of Reputation Ink. We are a public relations and thought leadership marketing agency for B2B professional services firms, including architecture, engineering and construction firms. To learn more, go to rep-ink.com.
So I'm going to go out on a limb and say none of us believe that relying on assumptions and gut feelings is a good way to manage or grow a business. Decision making in AEC firms should be driven by research and data, but that is also easier said than done.
So today we've invited Julie Witecki of FMI Consulting to talk about how to establish programs that enable AEC firms to shape market strategies using research. And this is a small preview of Julie's upcoming SMPS Southwest regional conference session on April 11th called Navigating the Road Ahead: Translating Research into Strategy.
To give you a little background about why Julie is the perfect person to be talking about this. Julie is a senior strategy consultant at FMI Consulting. She's got a career spanning more than 20 years and in her role, she helps clients refine their marketing and BD strategies for greater efficiency and impact.
So welcome Julie.
[00:02:25] Julie Witecki: Thank you. I'm excited to talk about this.
So, like most people in the realm relative to business development and marketing, I completely and totally stumbled upon it. There was no intention behind it, but it's been a 20-year career that I've absolutely loved. I spent about 15 of those years as an industry practitioner and just recently transferred over to FMI, which is a leading consulting and investment banking firm dedicated to the built environment.
We only serve AEC companies and many of our companies really struggle to clearly articulate market strategy. I help them do that and turn those strategies into actionable things that they can really implement through business development and marketing tactics.
[00:03:24] Michelle Calcote King: I'm really excited to talk about this.
My guess is that a lot of firms don't even really understand what you mean when you say research and how that can translate to helping them with their marketing and BD. So tell me why they should care. Give us the why about it.
[00:03:47] Julie Witecki: We feel like we're in this fantastic age of technology transformation and research. It just surrounds us all the time with the descent of AI into our worlds. You hear phrases like big data and predictive analytics, and companies are doing a lot to invest in softwares that leverage that data that exists within their companies.
But the real why around doing smart, decision-based strategy development and using research to support that is because this contextual data, which usually is not something that's a rear view mirror like pulling data from your systems and making predictions, it's very much windshield and looking out into the future and using that information to make really practical, thoughtful decisions that will move your company forward.
[00:05:02] Michelle Calcote King: When you define it that way, it sounds like a no-brainer, but what's keeping firms from investing in research?
[00:05:13] Julie Witecki: I think there's a lot of things that keep firms from investing in research. Sometimes it's a resource constraint, and people see research as being either time consuming, they don't understand the staff or resources that need to go into it.
Or they see third-party research as being incredibly expensive when in all reality, it's probably one of the greater investments. One of the easier things to see an ROI around.
[00:05:51] Michelle Calcote King: Absolutely. Let's say an AEC firm was interested in research to inform their marketing and business development. What does that look like? What are you researching? What are those components? I guess that a lot of them don't really grasp what that means and what it looks like.
[00:06:22] Julie Witecki: FMI focuses on what we call the five C's of context, super creative name, to focus in on climate, which is kind of your economic environment and the political, environmental, legal, everything surrounding your business.
The second C is customer, those who are buying your services and the perceptions that they have of your company, the desires that they have for their business, the reason they pick or the reason they need AEC services.
We also look really closely at competitors and having a really clear and honest look at who we're competing against. So we know where their strengths and weaknesses are to build strategy to counteract that.
Collaborators is the often not thought of research component of the five C's. It's the business partners that you have that have an interest in your business being successful, really looking to understand how your network is part of your business strategy.
Those first four are external factors and the fifth C is internal. There's a lot of research that can be done inside the company that takes the veil and the ego off of where you believe you are and allows you to look into that magnifying mirror.
I often tell my clients it's like when you go to a hotel, there's that really awful mirror that when you flip it to the wrong side, it shines deep into your pores and you can see all the flaws in your skin. And that's what company research does. It really shows you where you stand financially, operationally in your leadership and your culture. There's a lot of different facets that can come together for that research.
[00:08:47] Michelle Calcote King: What is your data set when you're conducting this research? Are you talking to current clients? Are you talking to employees? Tell me about how you're gathering the information that you're collecting.
[00:09:09] Julie Witecki: We like to balance primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources are really informing your climate, helping you understand where the market potential is. It's the starting point to identify trends that might be influencing business and give you some sense of where you can start going.
We use that secondary research then to build on our primary research, which is usually done in a combination of survey or interview to customers, to competitors, to your collaborators inside your company. Just to get a really holistic picture of kind of straight from the horse's mouth, if you will.
[00:10:01] Michelle Calcote King: What about prospective clients? Is that something you're ever able to build a picture for them? What does their market look like? And how do you get that data?
[00:10:16] Julie Witecki: Absolutely. Prospective clients is a great target space for assessing where your growth potential is.
[00:10:25] Michelle Calcote King: Right?
[00:10:26] Julie Witecki: If you're contemplating a market expansion or a geographic expansion, understanding where your brand sits in the mind of the industry or where new targets have need so that you can grow service to address that is absolutely on the table for a really in-depth and important piece of research.
[00:10:54] Michelle Calcote King: That's great. Is this something that you are doing for firms? How often are you doing this? And when are you typically brought in? What's the trigger that often makes firms say, "Hey, we need this. We need to turn to an expert. We need this data. We need this insight."
[00:11:23] Julie Witecki: Really good question. It comes at us from a lot of different angles. I would say most commonly, firms are looking to do research when they enter a long-term strategic planning phase, usually a 3- to 5-year kind of visioning of what they want their company to be and where they want to go.
Oftentimes we see it as an ongoing refresh of where do we stand. Market perception studies are great things to do on an annual basis as part of your business planning process.
We do a lot of research around ownership and management transition to understand from a company internal perspective, do you have the right leadership in place? Have you shored up the succession plans so that you can make some difficult decisions about how your business is going to transfer ownership hands?
And then there are oftentimes firms that come to us when they discover they have a problem. We're not profitable, we're losing work, we can't get into this client. And so we help them use research to uncover what those barriers are so that you can build strategy that allows you to move past them.
[00:12:49] Michelle Calcote King: I could see that. You hate for that to be the point where they come to you and you wish they'd come to you before the problem was there.
But that's great that firms are coming to you when they're doing that planning. Once you've done that research, are you offering recommendations out of it? Are you looking at the data and going, "Okay, we're seeing opportunity here" or "We're seeing perception challenges here. And here's what you can do about it"? Are you providing that next level? Tell me what clients expect whenever they get that research from you in terms of actionable steps.
[00:13:36] Julie Witecki: Doing research to research gives you a beautiful report with a pile of information that often just sits on the shelf. And then you don't feel the ROI from what could have been a significant investment.
So we really stress that research and strategy go hand in hand, and that you should be looking to triangulate data points around working towards a solution that allows the business to grow, allows the business to overcome a problem, and then build a strategic plan from that something that has a very measurable objective.
Something that's really bound by a scope and is leveraging your competitive advantage so that you can achieve the goals that you want.
[00:14:39] Michelle Calcote King: Absolutely. I would be giddy to get my hands on something like that just to have that kind of data and insight.
What are some common mistakes that you see, or that people should be aware of going into research? Obviously, a mistake would be just neglecting it. But let's say they've decided to undertake it. What would be some common mistakes to avoid or issues to be aware of when undergoing research like this and working with a partner like you?
[00:15:21] Julie Witecki: I think starting out with a really solid research design. Understanding the purpose of your research so that it's very intentional and that output takes you to the place you want to go. You can very easily rabbit hole down a place that while could be interesting may not help you achieve goals or solve problems.
[00:15:49] Michelle Calcote King: So just getting a good understanding of what you want to get out of that research. Do you ever find that there's still lack of buy-in once they've come to you, or is that solved and you don't have to navigate that? We also, on the marketing side, often find there's the decision, but sometimes buy-in isn't made throughout the firm and we still have work to do. Is that a challenge for you?
[00:16:23] Julie Witecki: It certainly can be if you don't start off right. I think the best place to start, and sometimes this is where people stop and find they go wrong, is with a really good, just internal SWOT assessment.
Really looking closely at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and then building your research plan, designing your research, around trying to determine those big, if true, discoveries that you had in your SWOT analysis. And what I mean by that is, we believe this to be true. Well, that's really big for your business.
If we can get data to validate that, that can move the needle, that can solve a problem, that will help you grow. Those are the discovery points that we like to start with with our clients so that there's that internal perception of this is who we think we are. And now let's go out and see where we actually show up in the world.
[00:17:39] Michelle Calcote King: I love that. I want to go back to your point about often the biggest mistake is not having a clear direction on how you're leveraging that research.
Can you walk us through what you see are the most common use cases for using research with AEC firms? What are some of the most common ways and or best ways that firms are engaging FMI and taking it and really making effective change for their firms?
[00:18:13] Julie Witecki: I think long-term strategic planning is one of the most effective uses of research. Long-term strategic planning can mean a lot of different things for different people. That term gets thrown around a lot, but really you're being true to who your mission is, and you're setting a mark in the sand that says we're going to evolve our company without changing our mission so that we can grow, so that we can give opportunity to our people, so that we can gain more market share. When research aligns with all of that to give you a path forward, that becomes a really effective and powerful place.
I think long-term strategic planning is the number one go-to for research.
[00:19:15] Michelle Calcote King: And so I'm guessing within that they're asking all sorts of questions. Should we add new services? Should we niche down our services? What's our brand like, should we build, should we invest more and build brand awareness?
Are those a lot of the second layer of questions within strategic planning that they're asking? Do we have the right people in the right places on our team? Do we have the right culture? Is that the detail that the research is addressing within that strategic planning process?
[00:19:55] Julie Witecki: We try to look at the company holistically and from several different angles. We want to look at a sales and marketing perspective of how and where are you getting work.
We want to look at your operations and see, where are you performing well, what standard operating procedures are functioning at their best? Where's non-compliance with that? Where do you see financial performance failing because your operational processes aren't in place? We can take deep dives into the financial picture and really truly understand the health and wellness of a company.
And then finally, and sometimes even most importantly, is the talent. Understanding the humans in the organization, their sentiment towards the company, their belief in the values and mission, their acceptance and utilization of their roles. You can gain a lot of understanding by looking at those four pillars of the business.
[00:21:19] Michelle Calcote King: I can imagine how valuable that is. Is there anything I haven't asked you that you'd love to leave our listeners with? And I know you're presenting on this, so maybe a teaser to what kinds of information, if you're attending that conference. I'll be there too. I'm presenting as well. So hopefully we're not presenting at the same time and I can come listen to your session.
[00:21:50] Julie Witecki: I guess I want to leave listeners with the encouragement that you're likely doing research without even knowing it. We're constantly gathering information through networking events or daily news, email briefs that come in, client meetings that brings information into your business at all times.
Thinking about how to formalize the collection of that intelligence and giving some sort of measurable return to that investment is a really powerful force, and it's not that hard to do. So I hope that's what the SMPS members at the Southwest Regional Conference can pick up from the session that I do—that this is not rocket science, that there are some tangible ways to bring it in.
Also just want to reinforce that FMI provides the industry with quarterly outlooks to kind of get context data, and we do some deep dive reports on timely and relevant trends and all that's available on our website for free.
[00:23:13] Michelle Calcote King: Awesome. Love it. Well, we've been talking to Julie Witecki of FMI Consulting. And again, if you're heading to the SMPS Southwest Regional Conference, make sure you stop by her session on April 11th. And Julie, thank you for your time today.
[00:23:29] Julie Witecki: You're most welcome. Thank you very much.
[00:23:34] Announcer: Thanks for listening to Spill the Ink, a podcast by Reputation Ink. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.
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